Corporate Crime

Our team of corporate crime specialists consists of experienced criminal lawyers working in cooperation with business lawyers. In addition to working with ongoing criminal cases of economic crime, the team assists with legal counselling and crime prevention.

Increasingly behaviour is regulated by criminal law. Both individuals and businesses are risking penalty for false information related to tax, VAT, customs, violations of competition rules, safety regulations, financial transactions and a number of other circumstances. These types of actions will often form the basis for major corporate crime cases. Also, the more traditional criminal cases such as accusations of corruption, embezzlement and fraud may cause investigation and possibly prosecution, both for businesses and individuals.

Businesses may discover that employees are engaged in punishable acts, and sometimes this will have enormous consequences for the enterprise. Not only can individuals be punished in a particular case, but the company also risks being banned from a number of future assignments and business opportunities. A key condition for possible corporate penalties is whether or not the enterprise has taken action to prevent the employee from committing criminal offenses.

Traditional corporate lawyers or the firm's own business lawyer will often not have the requisite criminal focus or experience to effectively prevent this. On the other hand - if a major financial crime investigation is initiated, the defender does not have sufficient knowledge or experience to understand the underlying civil law issues. Tax, competition, enterprise, etc. are all specialised areas of law.

Accusations of fraud can plunge the business into crisis. DLA Piper's team carries out the necessary assessments for securing documents, investigation, police reports and other measures. Our team of white collar crime specialists consists of experienced criminal lawyers in cooperation with business lawyers. In addition to working with ongoing criminal cases of economic crime, the team assists with counselling and crime prevention. Our global team ensures effective assistance both nationally and internationally.